Columbus bucks U.S. decline in home sales

Saturday

Feb 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2010 at 3:15 PM

Central Ohio home sales and prices inched up in January, in sharp contrast to national sales, which plummeted in the month.

According to the Columbus Board of Realtors, 1,025 homes were sold in central Ohio in January, 6.9 percent more than in January 2009. The average price rose 6.2percent from a year earlier, to $145,993 from $137,446.

Central Ohio home sales and prices inched up in January, in sharp contrast to national sales, which plummeted in the month.

According to the Columbus Board of Realtors, 1,025 homes were sold in central Ohio in January, 6.9 percent more than in January 2009. The average price rose 6.2percent from a year earlier, to $145,993 from $137,446.

Homes also sold more quickly. The average home took 90 days to sell, compared with 97 a year earlier.

"Central Ohio is faring better than we could have foreseen," said Sue Lusk-Gleich, president of the Columbus Board of Realtors, which released the figures yesterday.

"Homes are spending fewer days on the market, and the average sale price is increasing. Today, our market is the strongest it has been since the housing boom."

January brought the fifth straight month of sales increases and the third straight month of higher prices in the Columbus area.

That did not carry over to the rest of the state or nation.

Sales dropped 3 percent in Ohio, including double-digit declines in the Cleveland, Mansfield, Toledo and Zanesville areas, the Ohio Association of Realtors reported.

However, Ohio's average sales price rose 13.3 percent, to $121,345 from $107,024, led by strong gains in the Cincinnati and Cleveland markets.

Nationally, sales declined 7.2 percent, making January the weakest month since June, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The national report "is certainly not good," said Lawrence Yun, the trade group's chief economist.

The national results were far worse than expected and suggest the housing recovery will sputter without government support. The Federal Reserve and the Obama administration have spent billions to keep mortgage rates low and give buyers tax breaks, but both programs are set to end this spring.

"Most of the improvement that we've seen in housing over the past year has been tied to some sort of stimulus program," said Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner. "Now that we're seeing those programs wind down, we're seeing that housing is quite a bit weaker than many people had thought."

The tax credit for first-time buyers had been set to expire Nov. 30, but Congress extended the deadline for being in contract until April30 and expanded it to existing homeowners.

"We hope that there will be another surge come late spring" as the new deadline nears, Yun said.

Doug McCloud, a Blacklick Realtor who is president of the Ohio Association of Realtors, said the tax-credit extension appears to be working as designed in central Ohio. He said it has continued to push sales and helped boost prices because it is available to all buyers, not just first-timers.

"The tax credit has allowed the move-up market to get into a new home," McCloud said.

The bleak U.S. report comes after the government reported Wednesday that sales of newly built homes plunged 11 percent to a record low in January. The drop in Wednesday's report, which measures signed contracts to buy homes rather than completed sales, also came as a surprise to economists.